Here’s a story about life that begins on the No. 2 toe — the one next to the big toe — on the right foot of Jasmina Anema. In early January, a red blip, the size of a bug bite, appeared. It got itchy, and she told her mom, Thea Anema.
“It looked like nothing,” the mother said. Then the foot started to swell. On the morning of Jan. 20, on their way to Jasmina’s kindergarten at Public School 141 in Greenwich Village, they stopped at the pediatrician’s office.
Researchers have discovered that umbilical cord stem cells, found in the blood of the umbilical cord, and able to differentiate into various types of tissue, represent a valid treatment alternative for leukemia patients that cannot find a compatible donor for a bone marrow transplant. American hematologists meeting in San Francisco for the 50th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Congress are now focusing their research on these types of stem cells to fight blood borne tumors.
An American study has recently called attention to the possible applications of umbilical cord stem cells for leukemia treatments. For years, Read More…
Many of us remain close to our siblings in adulthood, seeing each other through life’s ups and downs. But for Dr. Don Hicks, director of The Center for Church Relations and Church Health at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, and his brother Billy, the relationship couldn’t be closer – they share the same blood and the same immune system. That’s because Don donated his stem cells to his brother last year after discovering he was Billy’s only chance at surviving leukemia.
Billy, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., with his wife and three children (two in high school and one in college), Read More…
In a ray of hope for millions of leukaemia patients, American scientists have claimed to have developed a technique which multiplies the small number of stem cells in the donor blood, making it much more potent for the treatment of the fatal disease.
It also eliminates the need for a matching donor, whose bone marrow is usually transplanted to the patient, according to a study which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine. Traditionally, there was always a risk that the patient’s body may reject the new cells from a donor.
Mesenchymal stem cells are present in placental blood and could represent the new frontier for tissue and organ regeneration. The cells were identified at the cell factory at Milan’s Policlinico Hospital and will be the subject of a meeting on mesenchymal stem cells organized by the Milan hospital.
Isolated and preserved in the Milan biobank for the first time for use in future treatments, the cells come from blood that is collected at birth. Plasma that has been used for transplants in patients with serious diseases like leukemia and lymphoma and represent a potential reserve of mesenchymal stem Read More…
